Wade slid out more envelopes.
Christmas cards. Photos. Copies of money transfers.
Some letters were stamped RETURN TO SENDER, still sealed.
I started reading.
Dad?”
In one, he said he came to my birthday party, but nobody opened the door.
In another, he asked her to give me a present.
In a third, he said he’d called six times and never got to speak to me.
“Mom, did you know about these?”
“I knew enough.”
“Did you keep them from me?”
Wade slid out more envelopes.
“I wasn’t going to let him disappoint you over and over again!”
“But I didn’t even know he was trying!”
“He stopped eventually,” she said. “See? That’s what men do. They try until it becomes inconvenient.”
“How many years did he try?”
She didn’t answer.
“Years,” Wade said quietly. “Then the letters got further apart. Then they stopped.”
"That’s what men do."
